


The Kids Are Alright

by YouKnowMyMethods



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Batgirl #17, Character Study, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne is Robin, Gen, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 15:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12111969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouKnowMyMethods/pseuds/YouKnowMyMethods
Summary: The Children's Museum scene from Batgirl #17 from Damian's POV. A character study.





	The Kids Are Alright

_This is humiliating_ , Damian thinks as he trudges up the stone steps in the ridiculous outfit Brown had seemingly produced from thin air. The t-shirt is baggy and bright blue and there are _smiley faces_ on it. He looks like an idiot. Worse, he looks like a _child_. Damian has worked long and hard to earn the respect of his peers and this feels like taking ten steps backward. If Grayson finds out about this little adventure, Damian will never hear the end of it and he’ll almost _certainly_ not be chosen to be anyone’s partner after _this_. Oh, how he hates that Brown’s plan is actually workable and how he hates the thugs inside who made this the only viable option.

When he steps through the doors and into the lobby, he’s hit by a wall of pure sound. There are children _everywhere_ , their shoes slapping against the linoleum floor and their shouts echoing through the high-ceilinged room. He knows he is supposed to blend in, but Damian can’t help the scowl that comes over his face. He’s better than this and he knows it. It infuriates him to think that every adult in this room sees him as just another sniveling child. No one here believes him to be any more useful than any of the others.

“This is _humiliating_ ,” he says aloud, one hand pressed to the communicator in his right ear. Of course, Brown has nothing useful to say. Undercover work _i_ _s_  part of the job and Damian knows that, but he’s gone undercover before and it has never been like this. Generally, a sweater and a pair of slacks are enough for him to blend into the crowd, but Brown had insisted an outfit like that would only draw attention in a place like this. A _Children’s Museum_. Just the name of the institution makes Damian want to hit something. “I hate you.” With any luck, the men they’re looking for will show their faces soon, preferably before Damian is recognized.

_Watch your six_. The warning comes just in time as he whirls to find a young girl, bubbles floating around her head. Damian…doesn’t know what to do. Adults, he can handle. He knows what they want to hear and he has been trained to be charming since he could speak. Children are an entirely separate matter. This girl, _Nell_ , clearly wants something from Damian, but he has absolutely no idea what that something is. The situation makes him feel off-balance and that isn’t a feeling he likes at all.

A question. She’s asked a question! Okay, he can do this. Questions require answers. She’s looking for a name, so he opens his mouth to give her one of his many aliases. “It’s… I’m new… Er…” comes out instead. No, that definitely isn’t right. _Come_ _on_ , he thinks to himself, willing his brain to start _working_. What’s wrong with him? This sort of thing is supposed to be easy and it suddenly _i_ _sn’t_. “My name is…Bruce,” he finally answers with the first boys’ name that comes to mind. He immediately regrets his decision, knowing Brown can hear every word. Somehow, news of this encounter will get back to Damian’s father and that is a humiliation he cannot bear to consider.

For the sake of the mission, he does as he’s told and sticks close to Nell, though he _does_  insist that she’s not his girlfriend. He has no interest in girlfriends - he’s above that sort of hedonism. Nell is fearless and drags Damian across the museum, taking great pleasure in showing him the exhibits he’s very obviously never seen before. At one point, she tells him to stand in a clearly-marked circle and he does, albeit warily, only to find himself encased in a bubble. It smells like soap and he grumbles to himself because he can’t properly see what’s going on outside. Eventually, tiring of the game, he sticks out a finger, pops the bubble, and escapes to the sound of Nell’s laughter. Popping the bubble is strangely…pleasing and he finds he doesn’t quite mind the girl’s senseless giggling.

They head next to an object Damian has most certainly seen before. It’s a plasma ball, fairly simple in its design, but Nell is entranced. She runs her fingers over the glass and Damian tries to explain that it’s not _really_  lightning, but a mixture of noble gases with an electrode in the center. The lightning effect happens because of the human body’s conductivity, the finger on the glass creating a discharge path with less resistance than the alternatives. It’s simple science, really, he tries to tell her as she pokes at the plasma ball and giggles.

The explanation falls on deaf ears and now she’s imploring him to touch the ball himself, as though it will be as magical to him if he just touches the stupid thing. Heaving a sigh and praying that Brown finds what they’re looking for sooner rather than later, Damian gingerly places a hand on the glass ball, watching as a tendril of light bends toward his finger. It seems to dance inside the globe and he watches it, inexplicably fascinated, until Nell pokes his shoulder and drags him off to another exhibit.

He looks longingly back at the plasma ball because maybe it was childish, but he’d _liked_  the lights inside and the warmth of the glass had felt good on his fingers. When he thinks about it, it’s actually pretty cool to have all of those noble gases separated from his hand only by a thin, glass ball. He wants to go back, conduct a few small experiments, generate the strongest beam of light that he can, but Nell’s grip is surprisingly tight and he has work to do. The plasma ball will have to wait. Perhaps he will take a field trip of his own – a field trip from the field trip that is his life - and return.

Finally, the communicator crackles in his ear and there is _action_. Damian abandons Nell without a second thought and takes the steps two at a time, deliberately losing his stupid hat along the way. He’s in his element now and, though the mission doesn’t go as smoothly as he might have liked, he and Brown get the job done. They make a truly terrible team, Damian notes as he sips his terrible coffee on top of one of the cops’ cruisers, but today hasn’t been a complete wash.

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Thanks for reading!


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